Rural Placement Warragul Redux!

Rural Second Week!

Phew. First off, I have to say that I enjoyed the 2nd Year Rural Placement tremendously and I thoroughly miss it now that it's over. No work, slack life, crap talk. All the things that one can wish for.

The second week seemed to fly by much faster than the first, and in no time at all I found myself on the way back to Melbourne. Without further ado, here's what I did then.

Monday was the usual drive back. This was quite easily the worst day in the whole of the Rural Placement. We had a four hour lecture on First Aid Level 2 (I have no idea that there IS such a thing as Level 2 First Aid... So don't ask) which took up the majority of the day.

The highlight of the day was after lessons were over and we had sports sessions! Football and Netball (For the girls) was certainly fun and refreshing - especially in the cold night air.

Anyway, remember the song that we sang last Friday for the "Life Story" thing? Apparently someone recorded it and burned it onto a DVD. Watching that horrid video was probably the longest 5 mins of my life. Watching it a second time nearly drove me crazy - we all looked like idiots in that video.

Tuesday was the hospital day. Exciting, interesting and just plain awesome. It was the day that made up for the complete lack of clinical teaching during the first week. I was attached to the Emergency Department (YAY!) with Daryl for one shift from 8 am to 3 pm.

Wow. It was incredible.

We saw all sorts of patients coming in. People with casts, kids with breathing problems, adults with heart attacks, someone who memory loss... Best of all was that I got to do all sorts of investigations and examinations on them. Blood sugar level, ECG (Note that you can place ECG leads closer to the centre of the body to minimise artefacts due to muscle contractions), auscultation, cast removal.

Daryl and I also visited the other wards of the hospital and we were able to interview a patient with pneumonia. Haha. Suffice to say I made my first "diagnosis" based on examining the patient and viewing his X-Rays.

All in all, the day was great and we brushed up not only our clinical skills but also our ability to network and communicate with both patients and doctors.

We headed back to the Caravan Park after the hospital visit and had a soccer match. As usual, I was targetted for irritation by Jenn. The unsuspecting me was happily dribbling a ball when she started running towards me. I intended to dribble past her when she suddenly grabbed my arm with both her hands and dragged me back. Needless to say, I lost the ball. At least she was laughing hysterically - and I thought it was kind of funny too.

Dinner was with the 3rd, 4th and 5th Years at the Bukhara Indian Restaurant - voted the best Indian eatery in Melbourne (Or maybe Victoria) by The Age. "Fine" dining indeed. The portions were pathetic even though the food tasted good. I'd take ABC Restaurant at Duku Road any day, thank you very much.



I just remembered another super random thing that happened. Jenn came to our place, opened the door, and said to me "I don't hate you Yuan Hwa" for no apparent reason. Win...?

Wedneday was an interesting day that started out really poorly. We had a forum on Complementary Therapy in which the speaker didn't turn up - which meant that we had to discuss it amongst ourselves. We also spoke to someone with spinal injuries - it was interesting but somewhat draggy in the end.

Following that we went down to the "fat cattle" market as part of a compulsory rural cultural experience - and it was certainly a heck of an experience. To make a long story short, it basically involved us looking at cows while stepping in their shit.




Fortunately, Jenn decided not to try anything funny this time.

The afternoon was spent at the local pharmacy where Daryl and I revised our drug names/uses. Oddly enough, the pharmacist referred us to a computer when we wanted to ask him some questions regarding drugs. ArGh. Someone remind me why we have pharmacists again if all they're gonna do is make us look stuff up ourselves?

We then returned to the Caravan Park and that was where Jon, Daryl and I became Xin Yi's models.

Obviously, that's where the first photograph in this post came from. She apparently took the photograph while I was looking at the nice afternoon sky. The rest of the photos were posed for though.





Haha. I look like some punk. Basket.

Anyway, we went on for our usual Netball game where a super weird incident happened to me. It was pretty cold that night and my hands were literally numb from the cold and the impact of catching netballs. Apparently, Jon concurred with me and touched my hand to see if I could feel them (THIS IS NOT THE WEIRD INCIDENT BASKET. I KNOW ALL OF YOU WILL ASSUME SO UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED).

That was when Jenn approached me with both her hands stretched out. For some reason, I stretched out my hands too and held hers. We stood there in a daze (Or maybe I was the one in a daze) for a while before Daryl broke us apart by shouting, really loudly, "What are the two of you doing?". Ok. To this day, I still have no idea WHY that happened. What was she trying to do? What was I trying to do? To be on the safe side, I shall assume that I am thinking too much.

Thursday was like the calm after the storm. We had clinical skills tutorials the whole day. The only thing barely interesting was when Jon, Daryl and I sang, out of tune and in high pitch, a selection of songs from my computer. Haha. It was really great fun. Thanks for being spontaneous guys.

We headed over to the girl's place to show them our "talents". Apparently, Jenn took a video of me doing an emo rendition of All 4 One's "I Swear". I hope that video doesn't get out into the public - the humiliation and shame is deadly; and the Life Story video is already bad enough.

Friday was nothing much. Pack up and go home day. Zzz...! I felt so sad when we had to leave. It had been a great two weeks!

Looking back, rural was more than anything I could've ever hoped that it could be. The company was excellent and the work was literally non-existent. Still, if you ask me what memories I would have on this placement years from now, it would undoubtedly be all the funny stuff that Jenn did to me.

And I'm left wondering why me.

Well, exams are in four weeks and it's back to school tomorrow. Don't expect to see many new posts!

I should be back in Singapore by mid June. Till then!